I'll Be Fine, I Guess
by TheDarkFlygon
Summary: Sometimes you just happen to get stabbed in the dark corner of a shady alley to save your crush. That's how life is, sometimes.


That was kind of… unfortunate, he'd have guessed.

Not that he didn't expect that to happen, at all: it was kind of obvious he'd eventually find himself with God knew what in God knew where and die a painful and ridiculous death. His life had always been kind of ridiculous anyway: he'd obviously not leave the world peacefully with kids and grandkids and whatever the good and lucky people have in their life when they pass away from old age or sickness or whatever.

No, he was going to go out with _style_ (and an end that could have featured in some shitty anime).

Everything about the situation was awkward and ridiculous. They were in some shady back alley, there was his class rep getting assaulted by some ever shadier dude with a cutter, it smelled like piss and blood and garbage, and the guy was even dressed in black with a face mask and everything. It couldn't get worse than that, really, in terms of clichés.

Alas, that was where they were currently standing. In a shady back alley, in the darkness, surrounded by foul odours and with blood pouring all over the place to match. The dude was unconscious on the floor, head smashed against some bin (ha, _fitting_), and there were tears mixing in with his blood and the rep's DNA.

Yeah, it really wasn't a good situation to be in, right here and there.

"Oh my God, Kishinuma, why did you do that?!"

The class rep, Shinozaki, kept screaming in his ears as she was sitting him against a wall (more like he let her do so, her shaky little arms weren't going to do that on their own). He'd have usually minded having someone fret over him so much to the point she was hyperventilating; but he found himself unable to make fun of that and instead decided he'd be a responsible senior for fucking once.

"Hey, Shinozaki… No need to cry, y'know… Just call an ambulance or somethin'…"

She stared at him with swollen, puffy red eyes and a bawling jaw, but only nodded in silence and pulled out her phone. Putting it right against her ear, he could tell her fingers were shaking like leaves in the winter wind, barely able to hold the thing in its place, as her voice only matched. Truly, she had never seen the horrors of the world.

She should have never had, all things considered. Shinozaki was too good for this bullshit.

He simply listened to her telling the cops about the shithole they had found themselves in, lying his head against the wall. In itself, the wound wasn't hurting as badly as he'd have thought: getting stabbed was like getting punched, except that he was bleeding profusely afterwards and that it was much worse to deal with. He had gotten punched before, that wasn't a big deal. The pain only started flaring afterwards, and the blood loss was the worse experience he had ever gotten through (after getting disowned, that was).

On second thought, the situation was kind of ironic. He had had no idea why he had decided to save her from probably death (probably). He hadn't even thought about it before jumping in some shady-ass street of the city where dealing drugs and public pissing must have been national sports. He had just… done that and he wasn't even finding himself utterly stupid for doing such a dumb thing. Well, also all things considered, she didn't seem to have enjoyed getting saved at all. Maybe he should have let her die.

Yeah, as if _that_ was ever going to happen.

Shinozaki eventually put down her phone, putting it back into her pocket, call ended. Tears still flowed from her eyes like river streams, hiccupping as she fretted again, hands flying all over the place and breathing hitching too often to his tastes.

"Hey, calm down, Pres… (He attempted a smile: everything not to make her worry). I'll be fine… I guess… It's not that big of a deal, just calm down…"

"How am I supposed to do that, Kishinuma?! You're bleeding and it's all my fault! I… I should be able to do something about it, but what?!" (There she went off again…)

"Dude, let's not go down that road… It was that crazy's fault, wasn't yours…"

"But you wouldn't be like that if I hadn't been there!"

He wanted to sigh until the end of times.

"Look, Shinozaki, I could have not jumped in there… but I did… and it was my own decision… So stop panicking, won't be helpful to any of us…"

She blinked for a few seconds, staying idle.

"You… You're right…"

Shinozaki rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her uniform top (oh, yeah, right: that had happened soon after club activities had ended, _great_), trying to settle her breathing down. Good, that was one step in the right direction. Very good, considering he felt his consciousness gradually leaving him. He needed her to stay calm until help was there so she wouldn't do something stupid and harm herself in the process. Couldn't be that hard, right?

He had a hand on his wound, in his left flank. Not the best place to be hurt (he'd have rather taken the hit somewhere completely inoffensive like, huh… Okay, maybe there wasn't an ideal place to be stabbed in), but not the worse either. Probably didn't hit anything vital. If he was lucky enough, he'd survive and be able to forget this all happened after he'd have inevitably entered a comatose state. Sleep sounded just fine right now: the smell of his own blood made him nauseous, it was harder and harder to stand with time passing.

"Just, tell me somethin', Shinozaki… How in the fuck did you end up here…?"

She didn't respond, at first. Instead, all she did was to look away, bow her head down, bit her lip, and only then did she answer.

"I'm… not sure. I think someone pulled me in this corner by grabbing my arm and slamming me against a wall. Then he pulled out a knife and… and…"

"O-okay, thanks, don't panic again…"

"I-I wasn't panicking…"

"You totally were… (He smirked with the least credibility anyone could have ever failed to deliver on). Doesn't matter. I'm just glad you're fine…"

She seemed almost offended to hear him say that. Oops.

"And I'm not glad you got stabbed because of me, Kishinuma!"

"Oh spare me this crap, we just went over this already…"

Shinozaki crossed her arms, obviously hurt to hear him say that (was he inappropriate? Was she too sensitive? Who fucking knew!), only to soon sob again and, this time, give up all hostility.

"I… just don't want you to die on me, Kishinuma…"

"Oh, c'mon, I wouldn't be a big loss… (Then he thought of everyone he'd leave behind today if he died at this moment: the class, Satoshi, Miki, _her_). I won't die today, I promise… Just… don't cry…"

She crossed her legs in front of her, arms wrapped against them. If he didn't feel so weak, he'd have tried pulling her into an embrace, just to strengthen her and not feel like she could be blown away by a breeze.

"You promise…?"

"Yeah… I know it probably don't hold much weight to you… but yeah…"

He expected to get slapped, physically or verbally, but instead all she did was to put her hand on the one he had plastered over his wound like he was trying to repair a leak.

"I… I'll believe you, then…"

Sirens started to echo in the distance as she looked at him in the eyes, no smile and only tears to be seen, fingers weakly clutching the back of his hand. It was unrealistic to witness, even if he was about to die would proper medical attention not be given to him soon. It was also pretty fucked up to realize he was somewhat happy to witness Shinozaki seemed to care.

Now to see if he'd be able to keep his promise…


End file.
